lie to me

There is a lot of truth in Tom Friedman’s editorial in today’s N.Y. Times. We finally have a governor in Michigan who believes in speaking to us as if we were adults, and of course, his poll numbers are plummeting. Maybe our problem is not so much that politicians lie to us, but that we like being lied to.

About the post

3 Comments

While I agree that most Americans want to be lied to and politicians avoid talking about the hard truths, I think the article’s premise that post-9/11 did not require any sacrifices on the part of the majority of Americans is wrong. Setting aside all the military members and their families who have spent month after long month, stretching into years, with the burden of active duty, let’s consider the simple fact that even the UAW and the teachers’ unions have agreed to salary freezes and benefit cuts and other sacrifices to help the economy. We may not have a Dwight Eisenhower calling us to sacrifice so we can beat the Reds, but that is becase we don’t need one. Instead, it is our elected officials who seem not to understand sacrifice – insisting that we can spend our way back to prosperity. The majority of Americans have tightened their belts and continue to cut back. We may not be where we need to be with a national budget or our infastructure, but the majority of the people that I know have embraced sacrifice over the last several years.

PS – I think Rick’s plummeting poll numbers have more to do with the impatience most Michiganders feel toward a state government that cannot get its act together and a new governor who is struggling to deliver on his promises because of it.

I think we Americans, and Michiganders in particular (I am Detroit born and raised), are ok with sacrifice. When we get uppity is when we have to sacrifice. The ultra-rich? Sure, they need to sacrifice. Mega-corps? You bet they need to sacrifice! Those welfare “abusers”? They’d better sacrifice. Me? I’m barely making it man, you can’t ask ME to sacrifice. May that explains the gov’s approval rating. When the message is that WE ALL have to sacrifice the speaker gets unpopular quickly.

The same thing is happening in Ohio. Gov. Kasich’s numbers are in free fall even though he has been very clear–rising taxes have kept new companies out of Ohio but spending is out of control and must be curtailed. He’s right. At a state level, you can’t have both. Perhaps, P.J. O’Rourke was right when he wrote, “We live in a parliament of whores and the whores are us.”